Marijuana ads in Steamboat Springs questioned

Planning Commission asks City Council to consider restrictions

Steamboat Springs  Several city planning commissioners showed support Thursday evening for restricting print advertising for medical marijuana centers in Steamboat Springs, some citing concerns as parents and potential impacts on children.

“I just don’t like the impression that the print advertising is giving the youth in this community on marijuana in general,” said Steamboat Springs Planning Commissioner Cedar Beauregard, a father of young children. Ads “are crossing the line between medication and recreation.”

The discussion arose in Centennial Hall during a Planning Commission public hearing about proposed changes to the city’s regulations for medical marijuana centers. Some of the proposed revisions involve a definition-related change to medical marijuana centers, rather than dispensaries, to allow licensed centers to also hold licenses for off-premises marijuana cultivation and infused product manufacturing. City staff attorney Dan Foote said a license for a center would be required for a license for cultivation or product manufacturing, meaning the city’s cap of three licensed centers is not proposed to change.

Revisions also address primary caregivers and land-use regulations. City staff is recommending that infused product manufacturing and cultivation operations be permitted to operate in homes if they meet home occupation criteria, such as building and fire code compliance and inspections.

Many of the changes align the city’s regulations with state legislation adopted last year.

The Planning Commission voted, 6-0, in support of the revisions. Commissioners Rich Levy and Troy Brookshire were absent Thursday. Commissioner alternate Jennifer Robbins attended. The Steamboat Springs City Council is scheduled to address the revisions in a first reading April 5.

The council could be faced with a discussion of print advertising, as well.

“I would like to see some kind of limitations,” Planning Commission Chairman Jason Lacy said, adding that he was referring only to print ads within the city, not radio, and suggesting that ads could be limited to a center’s name, location and hours of operation. “No one wants to recommend anything that would be in violation of the First Amendment.”

No one, including Foote, had a definitive answer Thursday regarding legal questions about print ad restrictions.

Foote said First Amendment law on commercial speech states that print ads can be regulated if they promote unlawful activity, and he noted that medical marijuana use is lawful under Colorado law, but not under federal law.

“The fact that marijuana is still illegal under federal law creates the possibility that we could restrict the advertising,” Foote speculated. “That is not true for other prescription drugs.”

In response to a question from Planning Commissioner Kathi Meyer, Foote said he was not aware of any other jurisdiction in the state that regulates medical marijuana advertising.

“I just worry that we’re going to be back here in six months with potential litigation,” Meyer said. “I would just hate for us to be the guinea pig out there.”

Beauregard, Lacy, Robbins and Cynthia Slavik expressed general support for restrictions. Meyer did not, and Commissioner Brian Hanlen had reservations.

“To me, it sounds like a problematic thing to enforce well,” Hanlen said.

“It might be easier to just say, ‘no print advertising in the city,’” Slavik said.

Robbins and Lacy said they would not be comfortable with outright bans. Foote said he was not yet comfortable saying such a position would be legally defensible.

After the meeting, Beauregard clarified that Planning Commission was merely making a request.

“We’re just recommending to City Council that this is a concern of ours — please look into it,” he said.

Parental discretion

Much of Thursday’s discussion cited advertising by Aloha’s, a medical marijuana center in Milner. Aloha’s has local radio ads featuring impersonators of Richard “Cheech” Marin and Tommy Chong, who have been marijuana advocates for decades. Aloha’s also runs ads that detail the center’s marijuana menu.

Kevin Fisher, co-owner of Rocky Mountain Remedies, said he doesn’t agree with the tone of Aloha’s ads.

“We try to keep our advertising not like the county advertising,” Fisher said in Centennial Hall, making a reference to Aloha’s. “We get a lot of complaints from our patients about the county advertising and what it’s doing to the medical marijuana industry.”

In response to some commissioners’ concerns about advertising’s impacts on children, Fisher cited abundant local advertising for liquor stores and bars.

“I think liquor has a far greater societal impact than medical marijuana,” Fisher said. “The notion that our kids are going to be safer because we don’t have medical marijuana ads … seems a bit hypocritical.”

Aloha’s owner Chris Ward said Thursday night that he’s heard mostly positive reviews of his radio and print ads.

“Mostly, people like the funniness and the lightheartedness of it all,” Ward said.

He noted that non-medical marijuana remains illegal for all and that medical marijuana is illegal for children.

“That’s a parent’s issue at that point. It’s not my issue,” Ward said.

He expressed disdain for arguments citing children.

“I think that’s a really cheap cop-out on someone’s part, a cop-out on parenting,” he said. “I have five kids of my own, so I don’t even want to hear that from anybody.”

Ward said his children are 16, 8, 6 and 4 years old and 18 months. He said he’s had many discussions about drugs with his 16-year-old, and he plans to have the same discussions with his other children when they’re older.

JJ Southard, of the Natural Choice center, said print advertising could help reach newcomers and visitors.

“Advertising in the paper gives us a chance to offer our services to people from the Front Range,” Southard said. “The advertising does help a lot, and it helps people who are truly sick and need the health benefits when they come up here.”

Comments

From a legal viewpoint, I think a judge would be extremely skeptical of the argument that while MMJ is accepted as legal by the City which is allowing several MMJ dispensaries that the city can then ban MMJ advertising because the city is claiming it is promoting an illegal activity.

Seems to me that any sane judge is going to say that the advertising is not promoting illegal activity unless the City is prosecuting that business for that activity.

OMG . what will the kids think ?? hey how about the truth for a change you gutless freaks

each year in the U.S.A

Deaths from Marijuana = 0
Death from legal pharmacedicals = over 150 thousand
Death from Aspirin = over 35 thousand
Death from nicotine = over 500 thousand
Death from Alcohol = over 500 thousand
Death from fast food and soda pop = well I don't know for sure about this one
Death from idiot politicians and gutless freaks = millions
Death from reading articles like this one = I'll keep you posted

I almost forgot

Death from idiots text messaging and talking on their cells phones while driving =
every ten seconds

There are restrictions imposed on alcohol & tobacco advertising. If officials craft a proposal that essentially mirrors existing guidelines regulating the advertising of other controlled substances, they may be able to pull it off.

Sep,
The restriction on alcohol and tobacco advertising was voluntary industry guidelines. And broadcast TV operated under FCC licenses that once required the station show public benefit to retain their broadcast license.

Maybe the city could try to pressure the radio for carrying the ad and threaten to protest the station's license renewal.

But to consider going after a business for print advertising is absolutely stupid.

I don't get why the planning commission thinks they have a right to recommend restricting any business advertising content. Will the city spending more taxpayer money to legally defend yet another one of their now-famous, far-fetched decisions? Stop it.

This is nonsense. Why are we going to stop being paranoid, and the slaves of fear-tactics? The whole country needs to wake up to the remarkable medicinal properties of the cannabis plant, and do it ASAP in all 50 States! Cannabis prohibition is doomed to failure, as it is based on a series of total "un-realities", which no amount of repression can make "real". Cannabis is NOT physically addictive as it lacks a documented physical withdrawal syndrome, the so-called "gateway drug theory discredited as invalid, much touted by the DEA drug Marinol is not at all the same as medicinal cannabis, smoking Cannabis does not increase the risk of lung cancer, and cannabis use suppresses violent behavior. These are REALITIES! To further say that Cannabis plant does not have medicinal properties is simply delusional and is a complete "break" with "reality". If anti-Cannabis repression by the DEA and its allies were to be intensified, the rate of alcohol, cocaine, opiates, other hard drugs, alcohol, and dangerous prescription drugs would increase sharply. Neither the DEA, not its minions can make people perceive Cannabis as "unsafe", where is in reality it is quite safe, much safer than alcohol and other alternatives. With the rise of the use of alcohol/hard drugs, the amount of violence and mayhem in this society will also rise, something that every mother and wife should consider. In these hard economic times our so-called "representatives" do not even dare talking about cutting the bloated DEA budget, especially its so-called "marijuana" enforcement, while they are willing to discuss cutting everything else. This is because the DEA and its minions are very good with attaching labels, and no one wants to risk being "labeled" as "soft on drugs"! The employment drug tests have a potential of "screening out" "Picassos", and Lady GaGas, and Willie Nelsons, but letting people like Charlie Sheen and Mel Gibson slip through (if the employers are "lucky"). And to say that Cannabis Plant does not have medicinal properties is simply delusional! Cannabis prohibition, as based on glaring scientific and philosophical "un-realities" and can never succeed in the long run!

What I don't get is why anyone of you guys would be at all surprised. You have allowed a group of people to form up around you and have given them ever more power to rule your lives. So much so that they clearly think they have authority to control every aspect of your life.

I guess maybe you thought you were only giving them the power to run your NEIGHBOR's life. You seem to like it when they use their power to keep others at bay.

Boy, it sure would be a hoot if Mr. Cedar Beauregard himself would get on here and comment as to where in the !#$^ he thinks he got ordained to set everyone straight on this.
Maybe he should take his moral conquest down to the Front Range and do some talking to with the people at Westword. Surely, there must be much darker forces of evil at work down there. I mean, for Pete's sake, we don't even have "adult entertainment" up here.(unless you count the 3-5 convenience stores that carry porn)

And if you're delusional enough to believe that limiting the print advertisement of any of these businesses will reduce the risk that your children will be exposed to it....well, I guess you're just that delusional. Why not step up to the plate and be a God-damned parent to your children? Why not teach them about the things that could be potentially harmful to them, instead of just peeing in everyone else's Cheerios in an effort to shelter your children from it all? I guess that would be too much work, huh?

“Herb is the healing of a nation, alcohol is the destruction.“ Bob Marley. Actually, it doesn't matter whether or not you smoke because it boils down to a First Amendment issue. AND it's been proven that it is easier for children to gain access to illegal drugs than once the drug is legal and regulated (like alcohol). AND 'children' don't really read the newspaper. Sometimes, our city officials just crack me up.

Watch out doctorK, the planning commission will have you arrested for written advocacy of an illegal activity.

Aloha's should get a copy of the meeting's recording and create a new series of radio ads For their customer base (seeing bad intent of keeping MJ illegal while alcohol and prescription drugs are relentlessly advertised), these sorts of comments are priceless.

Regulate the industry out of existence. Republicans and their Law Enforcement industry chronies will stop at nothing to save a huge revenue generator: Marijuana Prohibition. I dont want to see Marijuana advertised to children and at the same time I dont want Alcohol, Cigs, and prescriptions medications offered to them. Marijuana laws are a huge source of income to police, prisons, courts, rehabs, drug lords.

Yeah if we cut advertising out, we can hide mmj from the kids. Whoa wait, what is this two page spread in the paper every week for Central Park Liquor? Ignore that, alcohol is totally safe and not a bad influence at all! But those mmj ads.... WHOA look out. What will the children think?

Look at the research that has been done with kids in our town... ALCOHOL IS A PROBLEM. Not saying that marijuana doesn't have its own share of issues, but give me a friggin break!!

Parents, if you are not ok with mmj, teach your kids how you wish. But don't limit the opportunities of dispensaries and advertising outlets.

I want to hear an ad for cannabis that's formatted like a pharmaceutical drug.

"Tired of being so grumpy? Sick of having migraines ruin your day? Does chronic back pain keep you from being the person that you used to be?
Ask your doctor about cannabis today. (side effects may include and are probably limited to a little paranoia, the munchies, a feeling of extreme relaxation/euphoria and a newly honed distrust for "the man.")"

Police, prisons, courts, rehabs, and drug lords are the exclusive domain of republicans? Restricting advertising/speech is a republican idea? Dude, you need to look again. Ever hear of the "fairness doctrine"?
To single out republicans (for whom I have nothing but contempt) for free speech enfringement as if leftists were innocent on the matter shows your utter foolishness. Try to have a conservative viewpoint expressed on a college campus and see what happens. You are high.

Just because public officials have no comprehension of freedom or constitutional rights or recent Supreme Court decisions does not mean we have left the country. It actually shows me that the Founding Fathers were correct to note that the constitution needed to declare the rights of citizens because the inclinations of a few to control everyone else was not a problem limited to the King of England governing the colonies.

Maybe the Planning Commission should spend a few minutes at the start of each meeting and read aloud the Constitutional amendments enumerating the rights of citizens. In particular, 1, 4 and 14.

You’re misinformed, with all due respect. Congress enacted the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act in 1971, banning all radio & tv advertising of cigarettes. The ban was extended to smokeless tobacco during the 80s. The Feds handed down additional rules & regs last June prohibiting tobacco companies from sponsoring sporting events, concerts, & other “cultural” events. They’re also proscribed from advertising their product or printing their logos on hats & apparel & the like. If you look into the official justifications for these restrictions, you’ll find it’s all about – wait for it - The Children. “…voluntary industry guidelines…” are a figment of your imagination; except to the extent that the industry is justifiably afraid to embolden the nanny-staters among us by taking out an ad in the local rag. It’s not too much of a stretch – actually, not a stretch at all – to envision the aforementioned nanny-staters bringing identical pressure to bear upon the purveyors of mmj.

@Sledneck,
Im sorry to be so foolish on this issue. Who are the main opponents of Medical Marijuana? Republican Politicians and police. Who lies to the United States about the harms of Medical Marijuana? Republican Politicians and the police. I bet most of law enforcement who support imprisoning American Citizens are Liberal Democrats. NOT

Sep,
I misspoke to mix alcohol and tobacco advertising with voluntary and FCC.

The 1971 act banned radio and TV advertising of cigarettes and the enforcement mechanism was the FCC pulling the station's license.

The alcohol industry was never banned from advertising liquor, that was voluntary. That was not a figment of my imagination.

The 2010 tobacco law already has a judge ruling it is unconstitutional. Though, the tobacco industry is generally not fighting the law because Congress could respond by increasing taxes even more. Based upon recent Supreme Court decisions, particularly that corporations have free speech rights, it is highly doubtful the law is constitutional if a tobacco company decided to challenge the law.

You're right Cedar. Many thousands of people since the 30's have tirelessly worked to maintain the falsehoods and lies about our beloved cannabis plant, and it's time for that page in our history to be turned.
It's not about how right or wrong things are in relation to the prohibition of cannabis. What it is about is how much of a flat-out lie it was to initiate the prohibition of cannabis in the first place. You want to talk about creating(completely fabricating, in this case) an impression about cannabis? How about the made-up horror stories about cannabis turning Mexicans and jazz musicians into rabid, pillaging rape-rs(not rappers) that, now thanks to cannabis, have an insatiable desire to rape all the white women? How about the lies of the film "Reefer Madness," which was a government sponsored propaganda film about how cannabis turns kids into homicidal maniacs that have a blood-thirst for authority figures, like parents?

Please remember Cedar, cannabis was used for thousands of years before it's prohibition in the 30's. Queen Victoria used it for PMS and George Washington grew it in his backyard with the distinct purpose of separating the males from the females, as is only done for bud production. And still, to date, there has never been a fatality that can be linked to an overdose of cannabis.

And I'm still curious as to how you justify the 2-page spreads for Central Park Liquor as something that obviously isn't as dangerous(in your mind) as cannabis. Do you take issue with your children being exposed to glorification of alcohol?

1999-
I hope that you don't believe that there could ever be any fatal repercussions to having more than A cannabis-infused baked good.

And by the way, have you ever even seen any actual packaging for a cannabis infused baked good? Do you know what they look like? Because you make it sound like they appear to be packaged like Oreos and Snickers bars.
And you make it sound like there's hallucinogens put in the cookies too.

I think the concerns over edibles is yet another made up issue. Sure an edible looks like food. But so does vodka look like bottled water. Beer looks a bit like soda. Prescription medicine looks like mint candy and so on. Parents with the slightest clue have some rule or method for keeping products not intended for children out of their child's hands.

What sort of nonsense is "Until the MJ is legal please remember there is still a distinction between MMJ and MJ."? A rose is a rose is a rose. MMJ is still MJ. The only difference is that some states have created a means by which MMJ is legal while there is widely available illegal MJ as well.

And seriously, is Aloha's MMJ ads really that much different than ads for Viagra? Just because it is a legal drug does not mean it's use requires misery.

Have you ever heard of the "fairness doctrine" G.?
Have you seen what happens to people like Ann Coulter when they try to excercise their right to free speech on leftist college campuses?
What type pf politicians want to ban salt from restaurants, smoking from OUTDOORS, violent video games, toy guns, etc? Which ones want to force people to eat only approved foods, drive only certain cars, recreate only certain ways, flush only specific kinds of toilets, etc?

If you think republicans alone are the attackers of my freedoms then I will say to you again... I think you are HIGH! And fooling no one but yourself.

Sled, you are so right. Both parties are after out rights to make decisions in the marketplace. Republicans will let you buy guns and ammo but not pot, and democrats are busy "protecting" the public from bad food and things parents should be controlling from our youth. Why isn't a new party stepping up to promote our rigjhts to make our own value decisions on all these matters? This is just another example of how our two dominate parties are working for themselves and the cross aisle debate and not the good of the usa.

@Sledneck,
Outstanding. What we need is to elect some more Republicans. That way we can ensure things like: Wars, prisons, unfairness, Inheritance, poverty, Patriot Act, zero environmental protections, Nuclear Meltdowns.

Why do 'Patients' pay less than others is my big question?
If I go to a new MD will he/she give me a better deal?
I know if you switch pharmacies some will give you a store credit which is the opposite of what the dispensaries seem to be doing.

No G,
What we need is for Americans to realize that neither Republicans nor Democrats are the answer. Government is not the answer. Not the local one. Not the state one. Not the federal one.
Poverty, war, prisons, energy and environmental challenges, attacks on our rights and civil liberties and other unpleasant, unfair realities are part of our human condition which has no earthly cure.

BTW,
Obama promised to close Gitmo, end the wars, reverse the Patriot Act and more. He had the power to do all that and chose not to do so.I think he is a Democrat. Conversely,Richard Nixon STARTED the EPA (maybe you have heard of it). He was a Republican.

I am confused as to how "inheritance" made your list. Is inheritance bad too?

Exduffer...Comparing MMJ Centers to pharmacies will only frustate you.

The reason a Center has "patients" is because as a cardholder, you have the option of growing your own, or choosing to give your rights to grow to a Center or a private caregiver. These patients whom designate someone or an entity to grow their plants for them...they then usually get special price, some free meds, etc.

You're making generalizations about medical edibles(medibles, as some know them) that may or may not be true, based mainly on how each individual batch is made. This isn't some presumption that I'm blindly firing into a crowd. This is first-hand, eye-witness information coming from someone who's been intimately involved in the production of medibles. There are too many recipes and too many different types of medibles that can be made to be able to toss a blanket statement over all of them,
like
"trust me I KNOW EXACTLY the potency of the eddibles.

and trust me I KNOW IT COULD knock someone out if they ate eddibles thinking they were reg baked goods or chocolates or what have you."

First of all(genius), let's see you pump out a list of THC contents for the medibles offered by our local dispensaries. Why don't you explain just how "exactly" you know these things?
And who, exactly, do you think is keeping their medibles in the same container as their store-bought Oreos & pieces of chocolate? Do you honestly think that medical marijuana patients who pay what they do for their medibles(they ain't free) are going to just leave them out for kids and inquisitive others to just have at them? Well, if that's what you're worried about, then I say sure; prosecute the hell out of the select few idiots that are dumb enough to leave their medicine around kids.

But for that matter, don't we equally hold responsible those that leave other controlled substances(booze, script meds, xyz...) with-in reach of children? So what makes you think that medical marijuana patients would not hold themselves to these same societal standards with-in their own homes? Why have you seemingly assumed that medical marijuana patients are just a bunch of reckless, lawless, haphazard morons that could care less about the welfare of those around them?
I could answer that question for you but I'm more than positive that it could mean less than nothing to you. The problem with debating the whole cannabis prohibition with those on the nae-sayer side of the fence is that you can't use truth to argue your points. Historical fact is meaningless to most of them and the only thing that matters for them is that the government said it was wrong back in the 30's and now we've got prison loads of people to prove it all.

And as for overreacting, sure, you never said the word hallucinogen or mentioned fatal reactions. But your implications that medibles are readily able to just "knock someone out" after accidentally ingesting one are a pretty far stretch of the imagination.
How about going after the advertising for an industry that revolves around something so non-lethal as cannabis? How's that for overreacting?

If edibles were a new way of using MJ then it might be justified to be concerned about edibles.

But MJ has been consumed as edibles for ever and so it should not be any surprise that MMJ is desired to also be consumed as an edible. It would seem that edibles might be the sort of time release that is more typical of a medicine than smoking.

A handgun can look like a toy to a child. Just because MMJ edibles can look like food does mean any even minimally competent parent allows their child to access their MMJ whether it be an edible, buds or so on.

I agree with you 1999,I'm not against medical m.j. but I dont think radio ads with Cheech and Chong are relevent to it.For one thing,those movies were made before medical m.j. was ever thought of.They were smoking pot illegal and that is not the case today with current m.mj. patient laws and use.Its for treatment for real reasons and to imply anything to do with Cheech and Chong would recall days of illegal use ,not monitored by doctors(for sure) .Set a good example for the industry Cheech(I mean Aloha)If you can afford to advertise,please do it responsibly.
Pilot ,maybe he has the right to say it on the radio,but its tacky and stupid ,there ..Its also my right to say that...Sort of like hearing hemroid commercials during dinner.

Due to the newness of the industry and subsequent lack of regulations and operational guidelines, packaging and containers that cannabis is sold in have not been standardized. A lot of the dispensing up here is done via resealable plastic bags but if you go down to the front range you'll find a lot of places that dispense their cannabis using the very same plastic containers that hold most all other prescription drugs. Those containers, as I'm sure you're aware, have "child resistant" lids that are designed to make it much more difficult for kids to get into. Hell, they even put labels on them.

And what on earth are you expecting from the cannabis industry; suppositories, nose sprays or a pill that you take twice a day?

Sun-

You're not alone in your disgust with some of the radio advertising coming from Aloha's. I've spoken with numerous fellow patients about the Cheech&Chong ads and the common consensus is that those ads are mostly doing a disservice to the image of cannabis users that the rest of us are trying to change. Personally, I'm so annoyed by those ads that I usually turn the radio down when they come on. I mean, is there much else out there that perpetuates the stereotypical image of a "stoner" more than Cheech&Chong?

HOWEVER, I refuse to deny the fact they're entitled to that advertising, even if none of the rest of us like it at all. As a former member of our nation's military I take our freedoms and rights pretty God-damned seriously, and I'll be damned if I'm going to stand idly by while someone's trying to tread on my freedoms or the freedoms of others.

Yes I have seen buds sold in dispensarys in medicine bottles. thats great. but when you're selling "medicine" as lollypops, chocolate candies and such...youre bound to encounter an image problem.

I'm all for legalising MJ all together. regulate it as you would alchohol. at least then we can teach our kids what to eat and what not to eat and have some kinds of standards and expectations about how it's packaged.

I love the advertisements for Aloha's. They could use a better Cheech impersonator though. Don't you need an MMJ card to buy MMJ and edibles? The commercials make it sound like anybody can just walk in to a disensary and buy MMJ and MMJ edibles and all that. The ads should state that you need an MMJ card to get any. By the way, I saw the word "breasts" in the VNA ad in the Pilot. How dare they! Call City Council!

1999... Dilaudid & Morphine both come in lollipops. Not defending the infusion of cannabis into everything edible...agreed it gets pretty ridiculous. But, as some old folks and people in pain..sucking on a morphine lollipop may be their chosen way to medicate.